I wanted to be an oceanographer, actually. It's a way of going underwater. I've always been interested in how deep it was, you know.

The wind shows us how close to the edge we are.

The future always looks good in the golden land, because no one remembers the past.

Becoming a parent is actually terrifying. A lot of people have that feeling about their dogs. And if you're the kind of person who's going to have that feeling about a dog you're definitely going to have that about a child.

I read so ravenously that I would read through whole categories. I was crazy about reading biographies. [...] I think biographies are very urgent to children.

Let me tell you one thing about why writers write: had I known the answer to any of these questions I would never have needed to write a novel.

To assign unanswered letters their proper weight, to free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves--there lies the great, the singular power of self-respect. Without it, one eventually discovers the final turn of the screw: one runs away to find oneself, and finds no one at home.